ERS::Electronic Reality Solutions - Petit Le Mans 2006 Summary

The 2006 Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta began with great promise and a great list of entrants. There was still some disappointment among fans though because GT2S participant Lexus failed to materialize, as well as a smaller than expected GT1 field. Despite this, fans were treated to one of the largest LMP1 privateer showings in recent Petit Le Mans history. In attendance were both series regulars such as Dyson Racing, Highcroft Racing and Autocon, and also European squads of Zytec Engineering and Creation Autosportif. In the LMP2 class points leader Penske Motorsport battled rivals B-K Motorsports and Intersport along with European visitors van der Steur Racing and Horag Racing. Though GT1 only featured the two factory teams of Corvette and Aston Martin, GT2 hosted a fierce battle between Porsche, Ferrari, Panoz and BMW.

Going into the weekend all eyes were upon the European teams, especially Zytec which showed great speed last year only to be taken out by a first lap accident. Attendees were also anxious to see the brand new Radical SR9 fielded by van der Steur Racing in its North American debut. Aside from the visiting rank of cars, American fans were also interested in the new Audi R10 TDI diesel entry as well as the heated battle between Corvette and Aston Martin. As expected, the Audi and Corvette paddock area was full of fans during the mandatory autograph session on Friday.

Wednesday - Testing

Testing began on Wednesday and teams were allowed to feel out their car and tire combination on the twisty and demanding Road Atlanta circuit. Immediately the Audi R10 showed it's muscle with a 1:12.271 lap time, +0.485 faster than rivals Dyson in the new Lola B06. By this point in the season it was also no surprise that the #6 Penske Porsche RS Spyder turned a lightening lap of 1:12.810 not only blowing away it's sister car by a second, but climbing to third overall. In the GT1 class Aston Martin showed their pace early on, while the Ferrari's were clearly on top in GT2.

Thursday - Practice

During Thursday practice the Creation LMP1 team climbed to the top of the boards with a 1:12.006 but fell behind the Audi and Zytek in the later practice session. Domination was the order of the day in LMP2 and GT1 with Penske and Aston Martin remaining on top in their respective classes. In GT2 the BWM M3 of Team PTG briefly outran the Ferrari team while the Panoz inched ever closer toward the top. The much-anticipated Radical SR9 showed signs of early problems and managed to only turn 1 lap during the first practice session. The team would later turn a modest 1:17.067 in the second session.

Things would remain relatively the same through the night practice session as teams cautiously approached the circuit under dark and wet conditions. According to the Michelin tire engineers the track temperature was down to 73 degrees (from an aprox 101 degrees in the first session) making grip easier to find. However the darkness and damp track conditions more than compesated for this. As a result teams ran, on average, a 10 second slower lap than in previous sessions.

Friday - Practice and Qualifying

Friday morning brought the last of the practice sessions and an obvious change toward qualifying setups. Overall lap times were down significantly with the Audi R10s running a 1:11.057, Penske in LMP2 with 1:11.517, a charging 1:18.55 by Corvette in GT1 and a 1:22.639 by Ferrari in GT2. Several commentators speculated that we could see a new track record during qualifying as has been the case at other tracks this year, but alas it was not to be. Only the Penske Porsche of Lucas Luhr managed to break the track record with a 1:11.409 in LMP2. When the session was complete it was Creation, Audi, Zytek on the front row with Porsche ahead of Dyson LMP1 team. Corvette managed to start ahead of Aston Martin, though by the slimmest of margins. In GT2 it was Ferrari, Porsche, Ferrari with Panoz and BMW further arear.

According to Penske driver Luhr, the rising track temperatures meant less grip overall during the qualifying session. However the car prevailed and managed to break the track record was set in Oct 2002 by James Weaver in the Lola EX257-MG. Last year's record in GT1 & GT2 were quite safe with the Corvette running two seconds slower and the Ferrari off by a little less than one second.

Aside from the on track action there was quite a bit of excitement in the paddock as well. The #37 Lola of Intersport racing suffered a turn 4 crash during an earlier test session and the car missed several subsequent sessions while under repair. When asked driver Liz Halliday said that she was confident the team could get the car back out on the track before qualifying. Likewise the Radical SR9 was absent from several sessions due to a set of bad engine fuel mappings, which caused the power plant to cut out. The #9 Highcroft Lola/AER suffered a problem with the turbo wastegate and didn't practice early Thursday. The #88 Creation/Judd entry suffered electrical problems with paddle shift system during Friday practice, and the problem would later return during the morning session on Saturday. The #12 Autocon Lola/AER entry was forced to swap engines on Friday, and shortly afterward the team found a fuel leak which added to their troubles. The car barely managed to make it out during the 9am session on Friday. Also Butch Leitzinger spun the #16 Dyson Lola during practice a caused minor rear diffuser damage. All in all several teams were quite busy patching up their vehicles prior to the race.

Saturday - Raceday

At 11:46 the cars took the green flag but this was quickly waved off due to someone jumping the start. The subsequent start was deemed acceptable and the race was on. Within six minutes the Radical was already in the pits with a report of an engine misfire. The car would later return a few laps later, but this time it would go behind the wall and eventually withdraw due to engine valve trouble. A Ferrari would bring out the first caution when his car spun out through turn 10a. Pit stops proceeded normally except for the #37 Intersport car driven by Jon Field who had to return to the pits to remove a wheel gun socket used to change the tire. Field later rammed the back of the #9 Highcroft machine driven by Ducan Dayton which caused the car to both lose a wheel cover and bring out the caution. During pit stops the #45 Flying Lizard car was diagnosed with shifter strain so the car was switched to manual shift. The team felt they could fix the problem if time presented it's self.

Things continued to be dicey among prototypes and GT cars. Both Jorg Bergmeister (#23 Porsche) and Brian Sellers (#22 BMW) sustained contact from faster LMP cars but both managed to save their vehicles with no serious crash. Darner Turner in the #007 Aston Martin also reported an incident with the Dyson Lola, which resulted in no damage to the car. Things would eventually come to a head in GT2 when the #62 Ferrari driven by Maurizio Mediani spun on the exit of turn 12 and backed hard into the wall. The car was officially retired due to accident and Mediani was upset with himself for what he deemed a driver error.

During the caution the #7 Porsche RS Spyder of Romain Dumas reported a fuel leak in the cockpit and had to come in for some unscheduled work behind the wall. The problem turned out to be a bolt in the fule tank that had backed out allowing the leak. After a flawless top Frank Biela in the Audi took the overall lead. Johannes vanOverbeek brought the #45 Porsche into the pits to change the problematic shifter system on his car. There were several driver changes and as usual the post stint interviews were interesting. Chris Dyson reported balance issues on the #20 Lola, Stefan Johnasson reported that the #15 Zytec was a bit wobbly but very slick. Ducan Dayton was clearly not happy about the incident between he and Jon Field which damaged his Lola, while Oliver Gavin was impressed by the Aston's speed though he noted that the Pirelli shod car seem to drop off later in the stint.

The next caution would come out for a hard hit by Guy Smith in the #20 Lola. A suspension failure while in the esses resulted in a spectacular crash at the bottom of spectator hill. Smith was obviously dejected and once again the cars returned to pit lane. In the #50 Panoz pit driver David Brabham turned over the car to Champ Car star Sebastien Bourdais. Shortly after the caution, Brian Willman of the #12 Autocon team brought the car in for an unscheduled stop to check the turbo. The car would later return and go behind the wall as the vehicle's AER power plant continued to cause trouble. Eventually the car would withdraw due to engine failure.

Driver aggression continued and the officials served both Memo Gidley (#9 Lola) and Romain Dumas (#7 Porsche) with a stop and go penalty for avoidable contact. Attrition also continued as contact with the wall in turn 9 by the #44 Flying Lizards car forced a nose, radiator, and fluid change. The #22 BMW experienced an unexplained fire extinguisher discharge possibly due to an electrical problem. The car came to a stop on the racecourse but it did not bring out the caution. The pit crew worked with driver Justin Marks to repair the problem which was a blown inline fuse. After the fix the car was able to return to the pits for further inspection.

As the race continued the overall gap between cars in class remained tight. In LMP2 the #6 Porsche of Emmanuel Collard continued to close on the #37 Lola of Liz Halliday. During the next pit stop Jon Field would go back in the car and try to hold off the charging Penske machine. In GT1 the battle between Corvette and Aston Martin remained close while in GT2 the #23 Porsche of Robin Liddell lead over second place Marino Franchitti (#61 Ferrari) by a mere 10 seconds. Tragedy and disappointment continued for the Dyson team as Andy Wallace was forced to pull off track at turn three for an engine fire, which brought out another full course yellow. The car would be retired officially due to mechanical problems.

Driver changes brought yet more insight into how teams were progressing. Robin Liddell (#23 Porsche) reported that the car was good, but that grip was falling off as the tires became worn. He thought that the cooler temperatures of the evening would shift things in favor of the Porsches. Lack of grip continued to be a concern at Road Atlanta as the Creation team also reported problems after 15 laps or so of racing. Trouble also continued on and off track when the #007 Aston Martin and #3 Corvette collided in turn 10a. Lonnie Pechnick also had a tire issue when he left pit road without the right rear lug nut and had to return his three wheeled Porsche to the pits.

Things quieted until the 7-hour mark of competition when race attrition began to take its toll on various mechanical parts. Clint Field brought the #37 Intersport car behind the wall with a steering problem while the #4 Corvette came in for a front brake caliper change. Stephane Sarrazin brought the #009 Aston Martin in with an apparent overheating problem. The team would change the radiator during a following visit to the pits. Gunar Jeannette reported tire troubles on the #51 Panoz stating that "the Pirelli tires are awful, they get about 20 good laps..".

As the laps wound down the #2 Audi came to pit road for its last scheduled stop of the event. With proper fuel management the team believes they can make the remaining distance. However a spin by the Creation in turn 5 brought out yet another full course caution for oil and the competitors head toward the pits. Though the Audi's have historically struggled with traction, especially on a low-grip surface like Road Atlanta, the team continues to lead the field by a healthy margin. A spin by Marco Werner in turn 4 under caution set the #2 car up with a 19 second lead over its teammate when the green flag returns. The #1 Audi would later have to return to the pit for a broken tie-rod, likely from contact with a slower car. The problem turned out to be even more severe as the team struggled to replace a broken lower front wishbone. The #15 Zytec would slide into second place with only two laps remaining.

At the checked flag it would be Audi #2 with 4 laps over the #15 Zytec. In P2 the #6 Porsche lead sister car #7 by one lap, while in GT1 both Aston Martins had a two lap lead over Corvette. In GT2 it would be Porsche (#31), Ferrari (#61), and Panoz (#50). Total attendance for the event is estimated at over 90,000 tickets, which is a 26% increase over 2005 event. In the post race interview Allan McNish said,

"First thing is, I understand there was 90 thousand fans. On the warm-up lap, you're not driving pretty quickly and you look around a lot and I have to say it was pretty impressive. I think the people who did come out got a good show."

FINAL THOUGHTS

The 2006 Petit Le Mans was by third event and so far it has been my favorite. I realize I must say that every year, but I feel that this year was something special. For starters this was only the second time we've seen the Audi R10 in an endurance event in America. The car has shown a lot of potential and grace since it's debut at Sebring earlier in the year. It was also great to see that the Porsche RS Spyder has overcome many of its early reliability problems to clearly dominate the LMP2 class. Though the car count in GT1 is downright abysmal, I must admit that the ongoing battle between Corvette and Aston Martin has been great fun to watch. Aston Martin has clearly stepped up their game and overcame many of the gremlins that plagued the cars. On the other hand Corvette has fought against performance balancing regulations both on and off the track to help keep the velocity yellow machines close in the points race. But what has really surprised me is the battle in GT2. I must admit that the battle between Porsche, BMW, Ferrari and Panoz is one of the greatest, and most frequently overlooked competitions in sports car racing. All of these manufacturers have been on the podium, and all have fought against incredible odds and overzealous, faster competitors to not only survive, but to also put on a good show for the fans.

Overall I agree with the ALMS state of the series address in that sports car racing is once again experiencing a golden age competition. While the car counts are not as high as in other series, the quality of the competition and the integrity of the series remains high. While I don't share the hatred of other series as some ALMS fans, I do believe that this is the premier sports car and production based series in America. I hope that this event will be just another milestone on the road to massive success for ALMS and not simply an unrepeatable high water mark.

Information from this article based on official timing and scoring, pit notes, and personal recollections. For more information refer to the official documents on IMSA's website at PETIT LE MANS POWERED BY MAZDA CX-7

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